Calls have been made for the county’s fire service to hold a summit so key local and national decisionmakers can hear of the “perils” facing it.
The Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service has predicted it could suffer a ‘best case’ £3.9 million funding gap over the medium-term, even if it raises its portion of council tax by the most possible over the next five years.
Even though house fires and accidents on the roads are generally reducing, the likes of wildfires and flooding are increasingly dominating the service’s resources, weighing more heavily on its crews because of the extended time it takes to deal with such events.
Furthermore, fire services in England aren’t funded for inland water rescue work even though they are spending more time dealing with issues including floods.
Members of the fire authority, a body made up of councillors from Devon and Somerset that oversees the service, backed calls for a way to vocalise their plight, hoping that the prime minister, Andy Burnham, would be a sympathetic ear given his support for Manchester’s fire service during his time as mayor of the northern city.
Chris Grantham, the Fire Brigades Union brigade secretary, said firefighters hoped targeted savings by the service – which he claimed now amounted to around £1.9 million – would not be to the “detriment of frontline firefighter posts or operational crewing”.
“We are already seeing fire appliances responding with minimal crewing of four personnel, and we are concerned that any further reductions in the budget could have a direct impact on our ability to respond effectively and safely,” he said.
Councillor Alan Connett (Liberal Democrat, Exminster and Haldon) proposed the idea of the fire authority convening a summit.
“It could talk to the real perils across Devon & Somerset and lay out before national and local decisionmakers the very real risk to the fire authority, which echoes the very valid points raised by colleagues in the union,” he said.
“We can’t simply hear these concerns and do ‘nowt’; what do we do, as a constructive, positive organisation, to tap on the door of Number 10?”
Gavin Ellis, the chief fire officer, said he would be “fully supportive” of holding a summit to garner attention for the service.
“The strength we have as officers and members is really important, and [a summit] is something we should do collectively and include representative bodies [such as the unions],” he said.
“Firefighter safety is paramount, and since 2015 we have seen a continual reduction in central government grants.”
He described the service as a “lean organisation”, adding that it was the largest employer of on-call firefighters – previously known as retained – in the country.
“We do expect a busier winter, and at some point we need discussions in terms of what might need to change due to demand growing outside our control,” he added.
Mr Grantham said the FBU had already secured a wildfire summit with Mr Burnham in October, which it hoped would “provide an opportunity to discuss some of the issues that fire and rescue services are facing nationally and particularly the challenges we are experiencing within Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service”.
But Cllr Connett’s suggestion appeared to be to call a more wide-ranging event to tackle a host of issues.
Funding inevitably sits at the heart of this, with negotiations still ongoing with unions over the Pay for Availability – known as P4A – which relates to the payment of on-call firefighters.
The service is also continuing to look at how it rosters its wholetime firefighters in a bid to save money, and a 12-month review is ongoing of the service’s animal rescue capabilities.
The elephant in the room, though, is the lack of funding for fire services in England to conduct the rising number of inland water rescues they perform, usually as a result of flooding, which is becoming more frequent.
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